Moving up the ladder: the spatial determinants of intergenerational occupational mobility in rural India

In this study, we examine the “geography of mobility” for rural India. We study the spatial determinants of intergenerational occupational mobility across villages in India. Using a nationally representative data set—the Indian Human Development Survey of 2011–2012, which has detailed information on the occupations of fathers and sons as well as data on village-level covariates, we find clear effects of village-level factors in explaining intergenerational occupational mobility. The remoteness of the village, its agro-ecological and climactic conditions, infrastructural public goods and its economic prosperity are important correlates of whether the son is less likely to follow his parent’s occupation in the village.